Kaunas Day Two

Thursday, day two, was always going to be a hectic sketching day. During my wanderings the bus station, outside which was a helpful streetmap which I photographed. I found another one on a wall in the town hall square, which showed less of the town, but had landmarks marked on it. Using these I had a rudimentary itinerary sketched out, should you pardon the pun.

Back to the Old Town to begin, where I made this sketch in Vilnius Street, which should hopefully give an example of what I meant about the architecture of the street and the way it is laid out.

Thence to the Vytautas Bridge. I crossed it and took the funicular railway, which I sketched on my required elements post.

Crossing the bridge back to the old town I stopped to make this watercolour sketch of the Vytautas the Great Church. Whoever Vytautas was, they thought a lot of him in Kaunas.

I needed to do some shopping, and so I walked along the riverbank to the Akropolis shopping mall. My map told me that this was close to the Archangel Michael Church, and so this also gave me the chance to do some unfinished business in Laisves Aleja. I made another watercolour sketch of a building I liked.

Along the Laisves Aleja there are several statues of what I presume were prominent former citizens of Kaunas. This chap was a former mayor of Kaunas, ad I believe quite instrumental in Lithuanian moves for independence following world war one.

It was a bit of a step from there to Kaunas Castle, but even thought only about a third of the original 14^th century building remains, it’s still quite impressive, and sitting on top of the dry moat I found it one of the calmest and most peaceful places in Kaunas.

Looking behind me I realised I could see the tower of the town hall, and it didn’t look far away either. In fact I was right by the Old Town, which enabled me to nip back to the town hall square, and make this sketch of the St. Peter and Paul cathedral Basilica.

13) Hungary - One Day in Budapest - November 2017 - Required Elements

Alright, it wasn't exactly 1 day. I flew out on Tuesday 31st, but didn't arrive at the hotel until after dark. I did go into the centre of town by tram and metro, but it was too dark to make sketches. I spent all day in the centre of Budapest until after dark on Wednesday 1st, and flew home early on Thursday 2nd. Well, half term holidays are short, and you have to make the most of them. As such, I was pleased with the number of sketches I made on the day - although I will admit that a few of them were started on site, but finished in the evening back at the hotel with the help of photos I took at the same time.

Budapest - Chain Bridge

 I first saw this iconic bridge lit up at night. When I looked at it, being a Londoner, my first thought was - Hammersmith Bridge. Only, it doesn't look like the current Hammersmith Bridge very much. But I must have been thinking of the previous Hammersmith Bridge, since not only were they very similar, they were also designed by the same man, an Englishman called William Tierney Clark. Once I'd started comparing these Budapest bridges to bridges on the Thames, I couldn't stop. The next two bridges struck me as being like Chelsea Bridge and the Albert Bridge - even though the similarity is slight at best. As for the Chain Bridge, the original Hammersmith Bridge has gone, but Tierney Clark's Marlow Bridge in Buckinghamshire , which was built as a dry run for this one, is still there for a comparison if you're interested.

Castle - Buda - sketched from boat while waiting for sightseeing trip to start

 I did take a sightseeing boat trip down the Danube for an hour or so. Not as interesting as the Spree trip in Berlin, but more interesting than the Vltava trip in Prague. This is the castle complex in Buda. You can either walk up to it, or do as I did and take a ride in the funicular railway.I made this sketch while waiting for 15 minutes or so for the boat to depart.

Heritage tram - Danube riverbank - Pest side

 The most interesting - slightly older looking trams in Budapest run along either bank of the Danube. I sketched this one by the stop just along from the Chain Bridge. Not one person in Budapest stopped to look at any of my sketches at all. I must be losing what little touch I ever had.

Number 50 tram - Hatar Ut metro station

One of the things I love about a European trip is when you can leave your hotel early in the morning, and walk down the road a short way then hop on a tram. From my hotel you just had to cross the road to the tram stop, and take a 15 minute ride on the number 50 tram to the end of the line at the Hatar Ut metro station. These trams are pretty much as modern and efficient as you could ask - almost up to Berlin standards. In which case its such a shame that some of the passengers take them so much for granted, and show so little respect as to leave half eaten pizza on the seats and on the floor.

8) Wales - May 2017

After returning from Prague, I still had a couple of weeks on my sick note, as it were. I was aware of the therapeutic effect that making the sketches in Prague had brought me, and so I tried to get out and around in Wales to make some more sketches.

Dylan Thomas' boathouse - Laugharne

 It's a source of shame to me to admit this, but before this, despite living in Wales for 30 years, and despite me being an English Literature graduate and English teacher, I had never previously visited Dylan Thomas' boathouse. Laugharne is an achingly beautiful place on a bright Spring day like this.

Back alley - Laugharne

 Laugharne has this really charming higgledy-piggledyness, being built on little hills which reach down to the sea, and I fell in love with this view, and stood there for about an hour, trying to get it all down before fatigue set in.

St. Fagans Open Air Museum - former Aberystwyth tollhouse

 The Museum of Welsh Life in St Fagans just outside Cardiff is a place I've visited with my kids on several occasions. At a loss for what to sketch one cold day towards the end of April, I went and made this and the following two sketches.

St. Fagans Open Air Museum - Gwalia Stores

St Fagans Open Air Museum - Oakdale Institute

Brecon, Mid Wales

 Brecon is another Welsh town which has a charming randomness about its streets. In centuries past Brecon was an important market town, and the county town of Brecknockshire, and its streets still follow the medieval street plan.

Brecon - Mid Wales

 Although I say it myself, I think that you can see how I'd started to develop a personal sketching style since returning from Prague - a more graphic style, with heavy use of shade and shadow to give texture.

Brecon - Mid Wales

I do like street scenes, and this sketch from Brecon is one of my favourites. Something as fiddly as this does take time though, and if there's no convenient place to sit you can get some very funny looks from people who pass on the narrow streets.

Cardiff

 Finally, three street scenes from Cardiff. All of them are composite sketches - using the technique I used in Prague of adding a couple of figures at a time before sketching in the buildings to build up the whole picture

Cardiff - nr. Cardiff Castle

 The two figures in the foreground here are my daughter Jess and future son in law Dan

Cardiff - Hayes

I like the contrast between the dark, almost silhouetted figures, and the light buildings.

6) Czech Republic - Prague - Castle area

Entrance to Prague Castle complex

 Read any guidebook to Prague and it will tell you that you have to visit the Prague Castle Complex. And it's certainly very impressive. If for no other reason, you should visit it to get a close view of St. Vitus Cathedral. I ended up queueing for about 30 minutes to get in - but thankfully this was just for a bag check - and cost nothing.

St. Vitus Cathedral

No cracks about the urge to dance uncontrollably here, please. It was a day when, while sitting on the steps across the square while sketching the cathedral, in the space of an hour there was bright sunshine, torrential rain, and then snow. A wonderfully gothic building, although not my favourite church in Prague

Prague Castle Complex viewed from the River

Once again, St. Vitus Cathedral, and this at least should give you some idea of the impressiveness of the castle complex as a whole. Prague was the first of these sketching trips of mine, and it established a certain protocol for me. Namely, that whenever on a sketching trip to a sizeable city I must: -
* Ride on a tram
* Ride on the metro/underground railway
* Take a sightseeing trip on a boat on the river
I made this sketch while waiting for the boat to set off down the Vltava. To be honest, it wasn't the most interesting of sightseeing trips, but still good fun.